Lara's Torment
by Hidden By Shadow
Summary: Lara gets a houseguest whom she really didn't want to see again.  Considering said guest is Jacqueline Natla and she's determined not to leave, Lara's going to have her hands full just keeping her sanity, let alone everyone else's.
1. Chapter I

Lara's Torment

Chapter I

DISCLAIMER: The author does not own Tomb Raider, it is owned by Core Design, Eidos Interactive, Crystal Dynamics & Square-Enix.

Lara lounged on her sofa, staring at the painting of her parents and sipping her tea. Retirement was a nice change of pace after the years of running around, risking her life for ancient artefacts. Occasionally, her dreams were haunted by some of the less savoury parts of her expeditions. The Great Pyramid was one that occurred frequently. Lara's doorbell rang, but the lady of the house ignored it. Whoever it was could come back some other time when she wasn't so relaxed.

"Lara, let me in!" A female voice with a distinctive Texan accent called. Lara dropped her teacup onto the floor, where it shattered into pieces, sending the liquid flying all over the floor and on top of her boot.

"Come on Lara, open the door!"

"GO AWAY!" Lara shouted, thinking it was just an echo in her head.

"Lara!" The voice whined. Lara stood up, if this was Zip's idea of a joke, his hard drives were going to be having a meeting with Lara's pistols. Walking over to the door, Lara opened it at which point a thing in a black suit threw itself onto her and started speaking very quickly. Lara couldn't hear a thing.

"Turn around, walk down the path and go away." Lara stated, trying to prize the woman off her.

"Aww." The woman moaned, lifting her head. Lara flinched, the last time she'd seen that face, it was screaming as it fell under Thor's Hammer, "Can't you at least let me stay a while?"

"No." Lara stated.

"You're no fun!" The woman complained.

"Natla, is there a reason you've come back, again?" Jacqueline Natla, the former CEO of Natla Technologies and the last remaining Atlantean decided to answer Lara's question by burying her head into Lara's shoulder and sobbing. Which would have worked well, if Natla didn't have to stand on the tips of her shoes in order to do so.

"Can I stay here?" Natla asked quickly.

"What?" Lara replied.

"I've got nowhere else to go, my office building has been torn down, my apartment got given to some teenaged layabouts, my stuffs been sold on ebay. I've got nothing!" Natla whined. Lara sighed.

"You can stay the night, but you leave in the morning." Lara stated. Natla gave her puppy dog eyes. "Fine, you can stay until you can afford to move out, but the first time you try to kill me, I'm throwing you out of my house and dumping you on Amanda's doorstep." Lara stated. Natla squealed happily and glomped her, causing both women to fall onto the floor.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Natla cried happily.

"Get offa me!" Lara screamed, finding it hard to breathe. Being pinned under someone would do that.

Natla sat down on a couch watching as Lara paced around the room, wondering how she was going to break the news to Zip that they had a house guest.

"I'm bored!" Natla whined. Lara turned and stared at her. Natla stared back.

"Alright, I'll play along. What do you want to do?" Lara asked.

"Computer?" Natla asked, pointing at Zip's workstation. Lara raised an eyebrow. Zip's computer had video copies of her adventures on it, stuff she didn't want Natla viewing. At the same time, she remembered how clever Natla could be, letting her loose on the Internet wouldn't be a great idea. Looking around the tech room, Lara noticed Zip had left his PSP out.

"How about a videogame instead?" Lara suggested. Natla smiled. Lara walked into the tech room and picked up the console. Opening the disk drive to check what had been left in it, Lara closed it when she found it was not one of the games a British company, then an American company and now a Japanese company had made of her adventures and handed it to Natla. Natla sat back in her chair, playing with the console as Zip walked in with the weekly shopping, his view obscured by grocery bags.

"Zip, we need to talk." Lara started.

"Not now, I've got shopping to put away." Zip interrupted.

"Hiya handsome!" Natla shouted, causing Zip to drop the groceries on the floor. His view now clear, he could see Natla sitting on a couch with his PSP smiling at him.

"What the hell is she doing here?" Zip shouted, dragging Lara into the kitchen.

"She just showed up on the doorstep and gave me a sob-story about having nowhere else to go." Lara summarised.

"So, get rid of her." Zip shouted.

"Where? She's homeless." Lara pointed out.  
"Not our problem. Dump her at Amanda's house." Zip suggested.

"Considering what Amanda's like, that would be a really bad idea." Lara sighed.

"And letting that b-"

"Zip, stop shouting and no cussing in her earshot." Lara reprimanded.

"So letting that _woman_ in here is a good idea?" Zip said.

"Zip, she'll go as soon as she can get the money to stand on her own two feet again. Until then, we're helping her." Lara said authoritatively, before grabbing Zip's hand and dragging him back into the main hall. Natla had gone back to playing with whatever game was in the PSP.

"Can I have a computer, please?" Natla asked suddenly without looking up. Lara considered this for a moment. While she did have an issue with Natla using Zip's workstation or even her own laptop, Lara didn't think that Natla having one of her own would hurt – as long as her internet access was monitored. Problem being that they didn't just keep new laptops hanging around to give away to guests. Which would mean a trip to a computer store.

"Fine." Lara said, oblivious to Zip mouthing 'no' at her, shaking his head and moving his hands in a clear 'don't do it' gesture. "Come on, I'll drive you into the shopping centre."

Lara stared at the road ahead of her little Smart car. Next to her, Natla was being annoying. Not annoying as in 'I'm going to order you execution after stealing from you then wonder why you might be mad' annoying, child-like annoying.

"Are we there yet?" Natla asked.

"No." Lara said through gritted teeth.

"Are we there yet?" Natla asked five seconds later.

"No." Another five seconds.

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

"Are we there yet?"

"Natla. Shut up and listen to the radio. We'll be there when we get there." Lara snapped. Natla fiddled with the radio. Cheesy pop music flooded into the car. "Natla, what the hell?"

"U-G-L-Y, you ain't got no alibi. You ugly. Yeah, yeah. You ugly!" Natla sang along with the song. Lara sighed. That just reminded Lara of what must be going through Natla's head. She'd spent the last ten years buried in the remains of the 'Great Pyramid', one of the last remnants of Atlantis. When Amanda had found her, she'd been imprisoned. Natla hadn't had a chance to react to the changed world. She probably thought the song was current music. Which would make it even better when they got to the shopping centre and Natla encountered the wonders of modern technology. When she'd been playing on the PSP, she probably had thought it was a better version of a GameBoy color.

When they pulled into the parking lot, Lara opened the door and led Natla into a computer shop as a young boy walked out talking rapidly into his mobile phone.

"Lara, that kid's talking to himself!" Natla exclaimed, having been used to mobile phones the size of bricks and with obvious antennas.

"He was using a mobile phone. Technology had advanced a lot in the last ten years." Lara explained. Natla looked on before walking into the store. Natla made a beeline to the computer section and started looking at the specifications of a couple of laptops.

"Lara, which one of these is the best?" Natla asked, pointing at a couple of the laptops.

"I don't know, let's find an assistant." Lara suggested. She looked around the store until she found one and went over to him. "Excuse me, my friend is trying to find a laptop she likes and can't decide which one she wants." The assistant followed Lara back to the computer section, where Natla was still standing, looking at various machines.

"Well, what are you looking for in a computer?" The assistant asked.

"Something speedy and small." Natla answered.

"Any idea how big a hard drive you want?" The assistant asked.

"Um, what size would you recommend?" Lara asked quickly, knowing full well that Natla wouldn't know how big hard drives now were.

"Well, it depends on what kind of laptop your friend wishes to purchase." The assistant stated, "Speedy and small makes me think a netbook would suit you. They tend to have decent hard drive sizes these days. Depends on whether you can live without an inbuilt dvd drive."

"But we can use an external drive for discs, right?" Lara asked, before Natla had a chance to ask what a DVD was.

"Yeah, of course." The assistant answered, "And netbooks have a better battery life than laptops anyway." The assistant pointed out the range of netbooks. Natla chose one which was coloured grey. They paid for the netbook using Lara's credit card and walked back to the car.

The journey home had been a lot better. Natla had occupied herself with reading the instruction manual for her new netbook. Lara was going to have Zip check it over first though, to make sure he could monitor what Natla did on the Internet with it. Lara also thought that he'd have to help Natla get up to speed with modern technology. He wouldn't like that, but threatening to take away World Of Warcraft access usually got Lara what she wanted from him. Pulling into her garage, Lara took the netbook into the tech room and asked Zip to do whatever it was he needed to do to the netbook so they could monitor what Natla did with it before walking into the kitchen and getting a sandwich.

"Lara." Natla whined, "I'm hungry."

"Then make yourself a sandwich, I'm not your personal slave." Lara stated. Natla opened the fridge and grabbed some food before eating it and putting the empty packets back in. As she walked out, Lara opened the fridge and put the empty packets in the bin. She knew it would be difficult living with Natla, but Lara didn't think it would be comparable with taking in a small child.

_AN: Don't know how often I'll be updating this, it'll be when I have time to write, so hopefully it'll stay funny. And I do know this doesn't fit canon, this is AU as of the Underworld DC Lara's Shadow. I've set this a couple of months after the ending of Underworld. How Natla survived will be elaborated on later. Her accent and appearance are as they were in Tomb Raider 1 (I prefer that version of Natla to the remake version). Also, Natla is very OOC, that'll be explained as well through the fic. Though anyone whose read my previous fics Rebuild and Rehab will probably be able to guess at what Natla's backstory will end up being. Let me know what you think of this. Thanks for reading._


	2. Chapter II

Lara's Torment

Chapter II

DISCLAIMER: The author does not own Tomb Raider, it is owned by Core Design/Crystal Dynamics/Eidos Interactive/Square-Enix.

Lara sat in the kitchen sipping her morning coffee. The rest of the household was as far as she was aware, still in bed. Partly down to their lifestyle of 'stay up as long as possible and just crash anywhere' and partly down to Natla. Lara had assigned her a room behind Winston's and next door to Zip's so that if anything happened, they would at least have warning of it. Lara hadn't expected Natla to use her computer to play rock music into the early hours of the morning. Zip obviously hadn't either, after he shouted, "Turn that racket off and go to bed!" very loudly at one o'clock in the morning. Which had caused a shouting match between Zip and Natla, who turned down the music only to yell, "What?", before turning it back up.

"I said to turn the music off and go to bed."

"Why?"

"Because people. Are trying. TO SLEEP!" Zip had roared, forcing Lara to cover her ears with a pillow.

"Sleep's boring!" Natla had shouted back.

"No it isn't, it's a vital part of a young woman's daily routine." Winston had joined in with the shouting match.

"I'm older than you are." Natla responded.

"Then you still need sleep." Winston replied.

"No I don't."

"But we do so shut the music off or I cut the electricity to your room!" Zip shouted.

"You're mean!" Natla had retaliated. Lara had had to suppress laughter at that comment coming from someone who had repeatedly tried to destroy civilisation.

"At least use headphones." Winston had suggested.

"I haven't got any." Natla replied.

"Zip, give Natla some headphones." Winston had shouted.

"I'll do it tomorrow."

"Then I'll leave the music the way it is."

"Zip, get off your ass and give Natla some headphones." Lara had shouted, knowing that the shouting match was prone to going on all night.

Five minutes after Lara had made her coffee, Natla had wandered into the kitchen looking and acting very much like a zombie. She was still wearing the blue t shirt and black skirt she'd arrived in, her hair was a mess and her eyes were half-open. Natla staggered over to the kitchen counter and grabbed a mug off the rack. Lara could see that Zip wouldn't be very happy, it was his mug Natla had grabbed. Natla then proceeded to fill the mug with coffee, without putting milk or sugar in it. Yet another reason for Zip to be annoyed – he hated strong coffee, preferring decaf. Natla swallowed the coffee in one gulp, before turning and grabbing the coffee mug again. Lara watched as she refilled her mug then swallowed the coffee in one go again. Natla dropped the mug in the sink before walking out of the room. Lara finished off her own coffee and put her mug in the sink before walking into the hallway in time to hear the opening beats of 'Welcome To The Jungle' coming from Natla's room. And Zip shout "Natla, for god's sake use some damn headphones!" Lara sighed, this would be a long day.

"Why do we have to go out?" Natla asked, staring out the window of Lara's car. Lara kept her eyes on the road.

"Because, you need more clothes than just those ones." Lara answered, driving into a car park. The pair got out of the car and headed into the shopping centre. Natla instantly made a beeline for the nearest clothes store and Lara was only just able to keep up with her as she ran through the store and grabbed five pairs of blue t-shirts and five pairs of black skirts off the railings. "Natla, you can't just wear the exact same outfit all the time." Lara sighed.

"Why not, you do it all the time." Natla replied.

"Do not."

"I've seen your wardrobe. I counted seven green tops, three black suits, seven brown hot pants, seven pairs of brown boots, two pairs of black heels and a baseball hat."

"You went in my wardrobe!" Lara screamed loudly, causing a few people to turn and stare at her.

"Yeah, I wanted to borrow some clothes. It was no big deal." Natla shrugged.  
"Actually, it is when you don't ask first." Lara countered.

"Huh, I always used to be able to borrow other people's clothes without asking." Natla stated, lowering her head.

"When was that?"

"Atlantis."

"Exactly," Lara stated, "Things have changed. Such as people's views on privacy."

"Privacy?" Natla asked, confused.

"Please tell me you actually are joking." Lara sighed, picking up a green top she thought Natla might like.

"Um, no." Natla stated before looking out the window at the shop opposite, "Oh hell no!" Natla shouted. Lara turned to see, walking out of the Hot Topic opposite with several carrier bags in her arms, Amanda Evert. She was heading straight for the store they were in. Lara noticed Natla walked behind her and stay behind her, as if Lara was a human shield. Lara sighed, she knew Amanda was now not someone you'd want to go near willingly, but there wasn't any need for Natla to be hiding from her.

Amanda walked in and saw Lara straight away. Amanda walked up to them as Natla tried to hide herself between Lara and the clothes rack.

"Never thought I'd see you in here buying clothes like a normal person, Crofty." Amanda joked, a smirk on her lips.

"Never thought I'd see you walking out of Hot Topic wearing more leather than could be made from one cow hide, Wraithy." Lara retorted, making Amanda uncomfortable. Amanda grabbed the space near her neck out of habit, the wraith stone kept somewhere else. Natla chose that moment to fall over and land in plain sight. Amanda noticed and stared at her.

"Lara, I never thought you'd get yourself a pet Atlantean. I thought you were allergic to them." Amanda joked. Natla squeaked and hid behind Lara again.

"First off, she's not my pet. Second, she showed up on my doorstep with nowhere else to go." Lara stated.

"So, you're running a shelter or down on their luck bad guys, heh? Maybe James could come stay! Oh wait. I forgot, you made that impossible." Amanda stated, hatred stinging her tone.

"Maybe Amelia could have looked after him. Oh wait. I forgot, you made that impossible." Lara responded coldly, "Now if you don't have any more insults to throw, we were leaving." Lara grabbed Natla's wrist and started to tug her towards the tills and away from Amanda, who started shouting insults at them.

Lara paid for the few clothes they'd found before walking out to the car. Lara threw the bags in angrily, having decided to get Zip to order the rest of what they needed online. Seeing Amanda had put her in a foul mood. As they got into the car Lara sped out of the car park.

"Do you want to explain why it was you were hiding from Amanda?" Lara asked, trying for casual and instead making her tone hostile.

"Scary." Natla muttered, staring out the window at the passing traffic.

"Why? Okay, Amanda is a bit of a psycho now, but she wouldn't do anything to you if I was there." Lara stated, swerving to avoid some moron changing lane from crashing straight into her.

"That's the point." Natla muttered. Lara's eyes widened in realisation.

"What did she do to you when you were alone then?" Lara asked.

"Scary." Natla repeated.

"Oh come on, she's human, you're immortal. Nothing she could do should be able to scare you." Lara snapped.

"S-She used to make me..." Natla stuttered before trailing off.

"Yes?"

"...make me stand perfectly in the centre of the capsule without moving. If I moved she'd run an electric current through the floor. Other times she'd make me hold my breath for over a minute." Natla said quietly.

"She tortured you." Lara summarised. Natla nodded. "How did you survive?"

"I hid inside myself."

"Not what I meant." Lara stated quickly, "I meant how did you survive the Hammer and the fall into the Eitr?" Natla turned to look at her.

"I'm immortal." Natla stated.

"But it should have killed even you, yet you appear at my doorstep completely unharmed. Why?" Lara asked forcefully.

"I don't know." Natla sighed.

"Why did you appear on my doorstep?"

"I had nowhere else to go." Natla sighed. Lara turned into her estate.

"So, when will you move out?" Lara asked.

"You want me to leave?" Natla asked, sounding surprised.

"You can't spend the rest of your life here." Lara stated as she got out of the car.

"Why not?" Natla asked as she got out and ran to the back of the car. Lara looked her over.

"Because, I'm not running a 'down on their luck Atlantean's Shelter'." Lara answered, pulling the bags out of the car.

Zip watched as Lara and Natla walked in. Lara dumped the bags on the floor as Natla sat on a couch and sulked. Zip glanced at his watch – they were back hours before they were meant to be.

"Erm, what happened?" Zip asked.

"Amanda happened. We ran into her at the shopping centre." Lara explained, "Can you order any more clothes Natla needs online please?" Zip nodded.

"Why, you're chucking me out!" Natla whined. Lara sighed.

"Natla, surely you don't want to live with us for the rest of your life." Zip stated, "I spend all my free time online, Winston listens to classical opera and Lara sits around staring at pictures of herself on Deviant Art all the time. Why would you want to stay here?" Natla's answer shocked the pair of them.

"Nice place, nice people. What's not to like?"


End file.
